Here Come the Girls

So it's been written about all over the blogs, but basically 2009 is set to be the year of fabulous femmes doing their stuff and generally being massive. I could not agree more, there definitely has been something of a proliferation of cool, little-bit-kooky women making some pretty awesome tunes of late. Here's is GTYT's guide to the best three.

The one that's already pretty big - LADYHAWKE

I know when a song is getting big when my housemates have heard of it and ask me who it's by. Ladyhawke's My Delirium has just reached that stage, and her next single, Paris is Burning, my own favourite is doing pretty well now too. I've recently gone back and relistened to her self-titled debut album and it's better than I remember, with a couple of tracks sounding like an electro Stevie Nicks. It's not the most diverse album, but it's poppy and promising.

The one that's about to be really very big - LA ROUX

La Roux is probably the female I would place bets on to explode in 2009 (not literally, obviously). They're actually a two piece, but Elly Jackson is a pretty arresting front woman so I imagine the guy will stay pretty anonymous. They sound like the Eurythmics all synthed up. That's a good thing. The new single Quicksand is pretty awesome.

The one that's likely to be criminally ignored - MARINA AND THE DIAMONDS



Marina (and her elusive diamonds) produces eclectic pop - think Regina Spektor crossed with the Jungle Book, or at least that's the vibe on the B-side to her current single, Mowgli's Road, which you can download from her US record label here. The A-Side, Obsessions, is a little more straight forward "women singing about relationship angst with a piano", but it's also a very good tune. Both definitely take a bit of getting used to, and sadly I think that's going to be put a lot of people off. But while Marina's not exactly marketable, she is VERY hummable, and that's what matters really.

Also worth a shout out: Florence & the Machine, Janelle Monae, Yelle, Terry Lynn, and Ellie Goulding.

In addition, you may notice that the links are now for hypem.com, youtube or for emusic rather than to an mp3. After having my Valentine's Day Post taken down without any warning I'm a bit wary of posting mp3s. Sorry!